DR and Migration Planning and Preparation #
Before you start implementing the components of the DR and Migration solution, you must set up an environment that has a specific compute, storage, and network configuration, and that provides external services to the components of the solution.
Use the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook to capture environment specific input values that are required during the implementation.
Carefully review the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook before implementation to avoid costly rework and delays. Capture input values that are specific to your environment and verify that the components that are required by this solution are available.
The VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook contains inputs for each implementation and configuration procedure. Reference your values from the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook to complete UI or PowerShell procedures.
External Services #
You use services that are external to VMware Cloud Foundation when implementing the solution-name solution.
| External Service | Description |
|---|---|
| Active Directory (AD) | Active Directory (AD) is used to provide authentication and authorization to the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure. This includes dedicated Domain Users with least privilege access to act as service accounts for component connectivity. |
| Domain Name Services (DNS) | Domain Name Services is used to ensure components are resolvable by FQDN and by IP address. |
| Network Time Protocol (NTP) | Network Time Protocol is used to synchronize time consistently across components. |
| Certificate Authority (CA) | Certificate Authority is used to provide signed certificates for user facing interfaces. |
Important Considerations #
A typical good practice is to separate the management and resource vCenters/clusters. The number of hosts in resource vCenters/clusters is significantly higher than the number in the management cluster. A recommendation is to deploy Replicators on resource hosts and not in the management cluster so more Replicators can be deployed and a DRS rule can be created to keep the Replicator VMs on different hosts for better load distribution. Also, the replication traffic path from the Replicator appliances to the replication network on the resource hosts will be enhanced. The hosts can use the management vmkernel interface to communicate with the Replicator. Another option is to have a dedicated vmkernel interface for replication purposes only. Using the management vmkernel simplifies the configuration but significantly reduces the control options available to the administrator and can lead to a risk for routing uncompressed replication traffic, which is highly non-desired. The general recommendation is to use a dedicated vmkernel for the replication traffic. In this case, the administrator will have better control over the infrastructure. Using NIOC, the administrator will be able to set shares for different types of vmkernel traffic. It enables carrying the replication traffic over dedicated uplinks.
Note: If any other VMware HBR-based replication products (vSphere Replication, VMware Site Recovery Manager or VMware HCX) are used in this cloud, configuring a dedicated vmkernel interface marked with “vSphere Replication” and “vSphere NFC Replication” will lead to all of these products try to use it. This means the network connectivity between their appliances and the replication vmkernel interfaces will be required to enable all of these products to operate successfully. For more information, please consult with respective product documentation.